In a speech on national television, Venezuela’s president Maduro reports that the air defense areas of the country have been expanded beyond the Windward Islands all the way up to St Maarten. President Nicolas Maduro, said that his country has the right to defend itself in the skies above the Dutch Antilles.

Venezuela is already a bully of the seas claiming areas that it does not own, now it appears they are trying to bully the airspace.

We have to remember how PM Ralph Gonsalves supported Venezuela’s sea grab of Bird Island. Just what kind of betrayal was that?

The yellow area shows the Venezuelan Economic space, with the effect of Aves Island/Rock.

Under the International Law Of The Sea Aves Island is classified as a rock which does not get the 200mile economic zone, however Venezuela hasn’t signed the UNLOS treaty. This rock effectively removes a significantly removes most of the OECS’ economic zone.

“St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said the OECS had accepted Venezuela’s sovereignty over Bird Island and that he would not allow anyone to dictate whether or not he should put pressure on the Government of Venezuela in relation to the issue”. Speaking at a press conference at the Caricom secretariat, Gonsalves said, “Nobody is going to tell me which questions are important.”

When public support for this type of Venezuelan communist regime wanes at home they try and turn public attention from local matters to the international theatre. Continue reading →

“CLICO has become the poster child for all that is wrong in Barbados. The people know that elite wrongdoers are well protected – they have the protection of the police and the government.

The stench of corruption and the grandstanding of sanctimonious, arrogant, lawless and contemptuous elite engulf the people. Citizens are arming themselves, shooting at police and committing more grievous crimes. With millions of dollars stolen and no real hope of its recovery, approximately 20,000 seniors are at risk of poverty. And finally, as has been alluded to above, hardly ever are elites incarcerated in BARBADOS.”

ON JANUARY 2, 1994, CLICO International Life Insurance Limited opened its doors taking over the life insurance operations in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean of Colonial Life Insurance Company (Trinidad) Limited. CLICO served the Caribbean for over 60 years. The mission of CLICO International was to become the company of choice among life insurance buyers in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. “We will do this by tailoring our products to the needs of our customers, by delivering superior customer service, and by developing our reputation as a strong, financially stable company, deeply committed to the welfare of the communities that we serve.” At the helm was Leroy Parris, chairman of CLICO Holdings Barbados Ltd., which included services such as CLICO International Life Insurance Ltd. With 60 years of service under its belt, the company became one of the largest local conglomerates in the region, encompassing over 65 companies in 32…

Kudos to the recently revitalised national marketing organisation renamed the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc., for facilitating the production of a series of videos where the airline WestJet partners with the chain store Michael Hill Jewellery and a number of Barbadian tourism interests to highlight two couples who become engaged on our island.

At the time of submitting this column already well over 1 million people had watched the three videos and this number will rise substantially over the next few days. Add the media coverage by print, television, radio and other shared social media and realistically millions of people will be exposed to Barbados as a desirable destination. Timing of course, can be everything, and the fact that WestJet posted the videos just before Valentine’s Day can be no coincidence.

To reinforce the positive effect the airline rolled out a supportive seat sale to Barbados which required booking by 14th February, but for travel up to 24 June 2015.

When preparing for the filming, a few cleverly conceived twists were applied and to quote WestJet’s Manager of Communitity Investment, Sponsorship and Experiential Marketing (what an incredible job title), Corey Evans, revealed that ‘girls thought they were auditioning to appear on a new WestJet commercial that we were shooting in Barbados, and had no idea what was going to happen’. Continue reading →

Editor’s note: Remember folks… this is an anonymous blog so don’t take anything for true without a little salt and lots of questions. We received this anonymously and have no way to check the information.

If it is true, it is news. If it’s not true, it was sent by some anonymous mischief troublemaker…

submitted by anonymous…

I would like for somebody to tell me how it is that Faye Wharton-Parris wife of CLICO Ex boss Leroy Parris has so boldly displayed on the door next to her business Premier Event Services Inc @ Welches Plaza a sign with the name Welches Insurance.

Are people so blind or is it that they don’t know of this newly formed insurance Company? I know for a fact that it is belongs to them. The PARRISES making jokes at us and turning some Bajans into parros because they can’t get their investments back.

Director of Public Prosecutions Charles Leacock has been in the news again lately – so we’ve revisited this past story of his corruption and unethical behaviours like using the police to threaten and extort a woman who owed him a private debt – and then withdrawing corruption charges against his same police friend.

On September 16, 2008, Barbados Police Sergeant Paul Emmanuel Vaughn (sometimes spelled Paul Vaughan) was charged with corruptly accepting $56,500 in bribes between December 1, 2004 and April 30, 2007 from Evadney Cindy Bushell in return for protecting her from prosecution for selling pirated DVDs.

We said at the time that the Director of Public Prosecutions Charles Leacock would eventually withdraw the criminal charges against his old friend, Sergeant Vaughn, because the two corrupt public employees had previously been involved together in the Ronja Juman scandal. In short, Charles Leacock had Sergeant Vaughn and his goon squad arrest Ronja Juman in the middle of the night and subject the terrified woman to a vaginal search – over back rent she owed Charles Leacock. There was no way the DPP was going to continue the prosecution of a man who was his friend and a co-conspirator…

Ecuador recently went into history by becoming the first foreign country to take a thirty second television commercial which was aired during the recent Super Bowl at a quoted cost of US$3.8 million to reach an estimated 112 million television audience.

As first thought, any comparison between a country boasting a land mass of 109,484 square miles and a population of 15 million people with tiny Barbados seems almost totally illogical, but then look again.

Ecuador welcomed a record 1,500,241 overseas visitors last year up until 22nd December according to the website of their own Ministerio de Tourismo. Of that number the second largest market, the United States, supplied 16.6 per cent of the overall number which was 14 per cent up on the previous year, amounting to 232,868.

Colombia, its northern neighbour, produced the single biggest number, 23.8 per cent or 333,197 persons.

Sadly while Barbados Statistical Service posts critical information so late, it was almost impossible to compare our 2014 Barbados arrival figures with that of Ecuador for the same year. Up until last Tuesday the most recent posting covered the month of September, with October and November only being added in the first week of February.

So let’s look at 2013, where Barbados welcomed 120,584 American long stay visitors which represented over 50 per cent of the US numbers who travelled to Ecuador. Despite the initial geological and demographic disparity, their tourism planners were able to persuade the Government of Ecuador to splash out a staggering BDS$7.6 million, apparently for a single shot 30 second ‘ad’… Continue reading →